Latest news with #Milbank
Reuters
5 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Law firm Milbank cuts Katyal's $3,250 rate in defending NJ cities against Trump
July 25 (Reuters) - Prominent lawyer Neal Katyal of law firm Milbank will charge a sharply reduced hourly rate and not his standard $3,250 as he helps to defend two New Jersey cities sued by President Donald Trump's administration over their immigration policies, according to a contract obtained by Reuters. Milbank's lawyers, including Katyal, will each charge $300 an hour — a fee that will be split evenly by the cities of Newark and Hoboken for the litigation in federal court in New Jersey, the contract showed. The Trump administration in May sued Newark, Hoboken and two other New Jersey cities, accusing them of being so-called sanctuary jurisdictions and obstructing federal immigration agents. Katyal in the July 11 contract said he normally charges $3,250 an hour, and that some other partners at his 1,000-lawyer firm bill hourly between $1,865 and $2,475. New York-headquartered Milbank is one of nine firms that reached deals with Trump in March and April, after he began issuing executive orders against law firms that restricted their access to government officials and federal contracting work. Milbank, which had not been hit with an order, in its deal said it earmarked $100 million in free legal services for mutually agreed-upon initiatives with the White House. Four other law firms successfully sued to block Trump's orders against them. Here, Milbank in defending the two cities said it agreed to reduce its standard rates because a third-party — the nonprofit Goodnation Foundation — is picking up part of the legal tab. Hoboken said it will not pay more than $53,000 in any calendar year to Milbank. The document did not show how much Goodnation Foundation is expected to pay, and the organization, Milbank and Katyal did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Newark official had no immediate comment, and Hoboken did not immediately respond to a request for one. Large law firms commonly reduce their hourly rates, or sometimes bill at no cost, for legal work for state and local government clients. As hourly rates have steadily increased across the profession, at least two other law firms, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Susman Godfrey, also have hit the $3,000 an hour milestone. A January report by the Thomson Reuters Institute and the Georgetown Law Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession said clients have been willing to accept 'dramatic increases' in rates. The institute and Reuters share the same parent company. Katyal, a former acting U.S. solicitor general during President Barack Obama's administration, in 2022 was billing at $2,465 an hour when he was at law firm Hogan Lovells. He joined Milbank in February, and now leads the firm's appellate team. He has argued more than 50 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Milbank's team defending Newark and Hoboken also includes Gurbir Grewal, who is a former New Jersey attorney general and enforcement head at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and appellate specialist Colleen Roh Sinzdak. Read more: US judge slashes fees for IBM lawyers in billion-dollar software contract fight Lawyers in banking cases take a loss despite $35 million fee award US judge rejects lawyers' $94 million fee bid in auto parts pricing case Lawyers defend $205 million legal fee in US auto class action settlement More lawyers join the $3,000-an-hour club, as other firms close in
Bloomberg
7 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Apollo-Backed Packaging Firm Adapa Kicks Off Debt Overhaul Talks
Austrian packaging company Adapa GmbH is working with advisers to overhaul its debt, according to people familiar with the matter, three years after its takeover by credit firms led by Apollo Global Management Inc. Adapa, formerly known as Schur Flexibles, is working with law firms Sidley Austin and Hengeler Mueller in negotiations, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. Creditors are working with Milbank LLP, and the group has started to engage with the company on a proposal, the people said.
Otago Daily Times
18-07-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
History provides solid foundation
Access to Dunedin's past has never been easier, Paul Gorman writes. History is literally the foundation stone on which the Dunedin City Council sits. Big chunks of it can be found boxed, filed and shelved below the Civic Centre, two stops down in the lift, in the lower basement. The city's archives have undergone a nearly $1 million revamp in recent months. The council is now keen for the public to return to the new facilities and research away to their hearts' content. It's all right here — valuation rolls, building plans, drainage maps, aerial photographs, minutes and agendas of council meetings. Not to mention old stamping machines that weigh a tonne, various esoteric gifts and collectors' items, and lots of photos of stern, bearded men from centuries past looking like they're desperately in need of a good joke. "Yes, we have lots of pictures of men," council archivist Prue Milbank says. "They're very serious." Archives of course build up their own histories throughout the years. The Dunedin City Council Archive began in 1983. Its paper collection goes back to 1855, and the fragile Dunedin Town Board minutes book from that year, which Milbank carefully shows The Weekend Mix, and runs until 2002, when the council's electronic data records management system began. Despite the arrival of such modern filing methods, council standing orders require physical, signed copies of minutes and agendas to continue being archived. According to the DCC website, the archives' records were boosted in 1989 by the major local government reorganisation of that year. Included from the time of the amalgamation are proceedings and reports from more than 100 predecessor bodies, including the former Port Chalmers and Mornington borough councils, the Silverpeaks and Taieri county councils, and the Dunedin Drainage and Sewerage Board. Documents have also been acquired from other council departments and public donations. After 40 years, and with changing legal requirements for the storing and preservation of such precious records, the archive was due for refurbishment. Work on the new archive began last July, with material stored elsewhere while efforts progressed. The refurbishment is now largely complete, and the archives are open again to the public, although some work continues on the temperature and humidity control system, which should be finished in a couple of months. A council spokesman says the upgrade was necessary so the archive better met the Public Records Act's requirements. "Previously, the archivists shared their working space with the archive storage material, so part of the project involved creating separate dedicated storage areas, and a new working area for staff, as well as a public reading area separate from the storage space." The upgrade also includes improved access for people with mobility issues, new and improved shelving, including mobile shelves, a new security system and weatherproofing to prevent moisture build-up. As archivist, Milbank has oversight of this vast collection of information. She's the kind of person you'd definitely want on your team at the pub quiz, especially if it was focused on olde Dunedin, yet coming from Tauranga she says she has had a lot to learn. "I definitely know a lot of just random stuff about Dunedin. But because I'm not from Dunedin, a very generic thing that might have happened in the '90s I might not know about." Milbank did a degree in archaeology at the University of Otago, followed by a master of museum and heritage practice at Victoria University of Wellington. "Part of that is you do an internship. So, I interned here with the heritage adviser a few years ago, and then applied for the [archivist] job here and got it." Some of the visiting public's most requested items are building plans, which have been kept since 1900. "People are after these for information about their own houses. Heritage New Zealand also obviously uses building records for their work, so we are providing that for heritage properties. "If someone's a researcher, you can get the random niche questions, but from the general public it's generally genealogy kind of questions. So, they want to know things like, 'my ancestor lived in this house, can you tell me when or how long did they live there?'. "For that we use the valuation rolls. So, they basically just are sectioned out by the legal description, and that's what you have to use the cadastral [survey maps] to find out. "Then going to the roll, you'll see, for example, the house is on section 23 of block 17, and then it outlines who owned it and it has their occupation. If they were a tenant, it would have the owner's name and the occupier's name." Proper storage boxes guard the documents against damage from water or fire. "Even if a fire did start out at one end of the room, and all the sprinklers went on, a box is going to protect it, for a certain amount of time. "Archives New Zealand has rules that we have to follow, in terms of the environment. It has to be 20 degrees, but no more than 25, and it's not meant to vary more than a certain amount within 24 hours. Then also, the humidity has to be between 30 and 60%, and it's not meant to change too much over time either. "You just want to keep them stable. And then obviously you're not meant to have pipes or hazards, and it has to be a secure facility, so we have swiped access." Word has not gone out officially that the archives are again open to the public. "Because of the way our archive had been set up, it wasn't ideal for people coming in and we kind of did a lot of the inquiries for people. Now that we've got this new space, though, we are hoping that more people will come in and do the research themselves, because they do love doing so. "We have a conversation with them first, asking what kind of records they want to look at, because we have to go and pull them out for them." Some people stay in the archives longer than others. "We've had researchers come in every day for a week if they're doing a big project, but otherwise they might just come in for a couple of hours." The types of visitors varies, but along with the genealogists there are plenty involved in tram and cable-car restoration. "We've got a lot of the plans for the actual cable cars themselves. We get university students sometimes, if they're doing a project, but we're only open during business hours so we don't really get school students much." The range of documents probably goes beyond what the public might think is held, Milbank says. These include: Plans for DCC buildings, such as public conveniences, the Moray Pl public baths, St Clair baths, the Winter Gardens, memorials and monuments, theatres, air-raid shelters, the Moray Pl synagogue, bridges, the Palmyra Community Housing Development, and the NZ and South Seas International Exhibition of 1925-26; The 1937 Housing Survey — households were surveyed across the country. Information provided includes a list of all the people living in a house (sometimes as many as 13), plus information on the house, such as how many rooms, if it had running water etc; Street name origins, and renaming (this happened a lot as the borough council amalgamated with the DCC); Cemetery records — plans, burial registers etc; Dunedin Botanic Garden diaries, inventories, acquisition books and seed registers; Records on Dunedin events, including royal visits ephemera and planning, the South Seas Exhibition ephemera, photos, maps and plans; Records from various groups and committees, including the Flood Relief Committee, SS Kakanui Relief Committee, Peace Celebrations Committee, Civic Ball Committee and the Festival Week Committee; and Cable-car, trolley bus and tram plans. Among the council gifts and artefacts are the: Souvenir trowel related to laying the town hall foundation stone; The Bible used to swear in Dunedin citizens; The Mosgiel Borough Council mayoral chain; and The gold and glass necklace and ear-rings presented to Dunedin by Park Hoon, the Mayor of Dongdaemun, South Korea. - By Paul Gorman The archive To make a time to visit the Dunedin City Council archives, email archives@ or phone (03) 474 3553.
Reuters
16-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Law firm Milbank defends NJ cities in Trump immigration lawsuit
July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. law firm Milbank has signed on to defend two New Jersey cities that were sued by President Donald Trump's administration over their immigration policies, putting the firm at odds with the White House after it struck a deal in April to avert the president's crackdown on prominent firms. A team of Milbank lawyers is representing Newark and Hoboken in the case in federal court, new court papers showed this week. They include former Obama-era acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal and Gurbir Grewal, a former New Jersey attorney general and enforcement head at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Trump administration in May sued Newark, Hoboken and other New Jersey cities, accusing them of being so-called sanctuary jurisdictions and obstructing federal immigration agents. The lawsuit, filed in Newark, was part of the White House's broader hardline campaign against immigration. Milbank, Katyal, Grewal and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. New York-headquartered Milbank is one of nine firms that reached deals with Trump in March and April, after he began issuing executive orders against law firms that restricted their access to government officials and federal contracting work. Four other law firms successfully sued to block Trump's orders against them. Trump in his orders alleged major firms had "weaponized" the legal system through politicized cases and hires, and accused them of illegal employment practices focused on racial diversity. To rescind or head off such orders, the settling firms pledged nearly $1 billion in free legal services to mutually agreed-upon initiatives with the White House, among other concessions. Milbank, which had not been hit with an executive order, said it earmarked $100 million. Milbank Chairman Scott Edelman in a letter to the firm in April said the administration had approached it with concerns about its pro bono and diversity initiatives, suggesting it make a deal. The New Jersey case is one of at least three in which Milbank now represents Trump's legal opponents. Katyal represents a former federal official suing over what she said was her wrongful termination from a board overseeing employment complaints by government workers. He is also representing a group of five small businesses that sued to challenge Trump's across-the-board taxes on imports from nations that sell more to the United States than they buy. The administration has appealed a ruling the plaintiffs won in May. Milbank hired Grewal last year from the SEC, where he had led enforcement efforts since 2021. Katyal joined the firm in February from rival law firm Hogan Lovells, and now leads Milbank's appellate team. He has argued more than 50 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is United States v. City of Newark et al, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, No. 2:25-cv-05081-EP-AME. Read more: Small businesses sign up prominent appellate attorney Neal Katyal in tariff case From Harvard to Musk, law firm Quinn Emanuel juggles Trump's friends and foes Law firms hire former Tesla lawyer and top conservative litigator for Trump fight Obama's top Supreme Court lawyer files lawsuit over Trump funding freeze
Washington Post
04-07-2025
- Washington Post
Can nature help fix our brains?
Check out some of the other columns about Milbank's adventures in nature: Dana Milbank: Technology broke our connection to nature. Here is a way back. Dana Milbank: Nature's lesson for the politically worried: Spring will come again Dana Milbank: My new tractor will either extend my life or end it quickly Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
